Everett would need another $38M to build stadium, documents show

Published 1:30 am Thursday, February 26, 2026

EVERETT — The estimated cost of Everett’s potential downtown stadium project has increased by nearly $40 million, city staff shared with council members in January.

During the Jan. 31 City Council retreat, Everett special projects manager Scott Pattison and consultant Ben Franz discussed with council members a number of topics related to the stadium project, known as the Outdoor Event Center, including “making up the budget shortfall,” meeting minutes showed.

In presentation slides obtained by The Daily Herald through a public records request, city staff wrote that the cost estimate of the project has increased to $120 million and that Everett is looking to find the missing tens of millions of dollars — about a quarter of the project’s entire budget — that would be needed to complete it. Staff previously estimated the stadium would cost $82 million.

The cost projections increased because the city would need to buy more properties than it previously anticipated to complete the project, Pattison said in an interview Wednesday. Construction costs have also increased, he said.

To fund the proposed project, Everett had already planned to raise $40 million worth of bonds, paid off by the stadium’s revenue, to serve as the bulk of funding for the project. The state, Snohomish County, Everett AquaSox and United Soccer League also plan to contribute millions of dollars each if it’s built. The city has already spent nearly $7 million in capital dollars on the project, a number that was previously planned to increase to over $9 million by the time the project would be complete, city staff have said.

Now, Pattison said Everett would likely have to invest more money into the project, though he did not state a specific amount of new funding that could come from the city. He said the city’s goal is to work first with private investors — like local or regional businesses and corporations — as well as public agencies to find as much funding as possible before supplementing that with city dollars to fill the budget gap.

The extra money needed to fill that gap, if needed, would come from additional city bonds, Pattison said.

“We still believe that the economic impact and quality of life of this project supports spending additional funds, both for the city and the county,” Pattison said Wednesday.

Everett hoped to have the stadium open for the start of the Everett AquaSox baseball season in April 2027, now less than 14 months away. One of the owners of the AquaSox has said Major League Baseball has fined the team for playing in a stadium that’s not compliant with new standards the league issued in 2021.

Pattison said the city is still targeting an opening date sometime in 2027.

Everett also hopes to host two United Soccer League teams at the new stadium, though lease negotiations with the soccer league are still ongoing. Pattison said that he expects to complete lease negotiations with both the AquaSox and the soccer league within a month.

It’s still not certain that the stadium will be built, as the city council has yet to give final approval to the project. That would only come after the design of the stadium is complete and a funding package is developed, staff previously said.

In the presentation slides, the city also said that business relocations are already underway and that it has made multiple offers to property owners at the stadium site, after a June 2025 city council vote gave staff permission to begin property acquisition work for the project.

Pattison said Wednesday that two properties have contracts finalized for the city to purchase, should the stadium be built. No property purchases have officially closed yet — the city council must vote again to approve them and they would only be finalized if the stadium project advances.

The stadium would be located between Hewitt Avenue and Pacific Avenue, east of Broadway. It would also include an urban park and serve as an event amphitheater, according to city documents. Work on the project began in 2021 after Major League Baseball introduced new regulations related to minor league stadiums.

The current home of the minor league Everett AquaSox was not compliant with those regulations; it either needed a complete rebuild or a new stadium would have to be built in another location, the city said. Everett studied locations across the city before settling on a downtown location in December 2024, a move that could lead to the relocation of at least 17 businesses on the site.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.